The Week in Quotes: July 18th - 24th

CHAEL SONNEN: I'M NOT AS STUPID AS I LOOK

"At the end of the day, he's still going to be better than me." - Chael Sonnen, who will challenge Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title at UFC 117. (Houston Chronicle)

"He's still going to punch better than me and kick better. He's going to have a black belt in jiu-jitsu and I'm gonna have no belt in jiu-jitsu. But who cares?" - Sonnen. Silva will also still not be a registered member of an American political party. So, he's got that going for him too.

"I'm gonna walk straight up to him, put him on his ass and beat a hole in his face. And as long as this sport has been around, that strategy has never been beaten." - Sonnen. That strategy has never been beaten...except by Demian Maia, Paulo Filho, Jeremy Horn, "Babalu" Sobral, Terry Martin (Terry Martin?!), Jeremy Horn again, Forrest Griffin, and Trevor Prangley. But other than that, it's pretty much the best strategy ever.

SOME PEOPLE JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT

"I am looking for information, treatment procedures and really anything I can find on this issue." - Shane Carwin, professional fighter and documented engineer, seeking medical advice about lactic acidosis from the dregs of the Underground forum. Props go out to the Bloody Elbow commenter who made the "Let me Google that for you" joke. (The Underground)

"What training techniques are out there to offset this. I heard about a Gracie diet that helps prevent it. Share some knowledge with me." - Carwin. Hey Shane, if you send me $100, I'll send you a piece of cheesecloth that you can strain watermelon through. The juice will be sure to offset your "condition". Hell, I'll throw in a subscription to Mark Hunt's blog with it.

"I know not breathing is what brought that on. I am now sleeping with my MP3 player looping "Breath Drago, You Are Breathing" by Matt Serra (available on iFunes [sic])." - Carwin. "I know not breathing is what brought it on." I'm no doctor, but maybe you should try breathing next time. Also, good to see your rapier wit poking out like Puxatony Phil. He saw mad shadows though.

"I train 5-6 times a week, we hard spar twice a week, I do my strength and conditioning and cardio work 5 days a week. I really cannot train any more then I already do so I need to solve this with diet, training tweaks and things of that nature." - Carwin. Thinly veiled attempt at trying to convince us his cardio is not in question here.

"Let me hear what you have to say." - Carwin. You sure you want that?

K.J. NOONS MAKES KEANU REEVES LOOK LIKE SAM HARRIS

"Can she be competitive if she fought in the WEC? Yes, she could." - K.J. Noons, talking about "Cyborg" Santos. Cris, not Evangelista. (Sherdog)

"When I see her fight other guys, she’s usually beating them up or manhandling them." - Noons. It's time to out these "guys", Karl James.

"She throws like a 145-pound man." - Noons. Fortunately, I don't have to be the voice of reason here.

"She’s agile, but she’s still a female. There’s still a big difference. They don’t have that natural testosterone production that men have. Men are built more for strength and there’s just a big gap between the two." - Trainer Eric Del Fierro, who has worked with Santos the last two months.

"She could go in there and do well against some of those guys, but there’s still a big difference between men and women and the dynamics of their own strength levels and agility. She doesn’t have the foundation of wrestling that some of the guys have in that division. There’s no way you could throw her against Urijah Faber Jose Aldo and expect her to do great." - Del Fierro. I'm sorry, but Cris Santos is going to be a huge dog over anyone in the WEC at 145 and 135 pounds. Not only would they be stronger if all other things were equal, but these guys would be able to cut so much more weight as well. In a "perfect" fight world where the guys had no reservation about blasting a woman, Santos wins less than five percent of the time, conservatively.

YOUR OVERCONFIDENCE IS YOUR WEAKNESS

"Sambo is great. Jiu-jitsu is nothing special." - Fedor Emelianenko, with a quote so out of character, I'm curious about the translation. But yeah, jiu jitsu really is not special. Effective, but not special. (Gazeta.ru)

"We went over several jiu-jitsu guys like that before. I lost because of what happened.  My loss was caused by my personal mistake in the cage." - Emelianenko, more translation oddities.

"I will never go against my conscience and never betray my country like that. Money doesn't matter that much to me that I could lie to people." - Emelianenko, responding to allegation of fight fixing. People really thought he threw that fight?

WHITE NOISE

"My honest opinion of boxing is that boxing will go away." - UFC President Dana White (Cage Writer)

"[I]t's just that it's so fragmented, and so many bad things have happened. Nobody is going to stick their hand in their own pocket and spend their own money to save the sport of boxing, nobody is going to do it." - White

"Once everything went to a pay model, boxing stopped giving you good fights for free. As soon as that model ended your market starts to shrink when you're only on pay-per-view." - White. I don't think boxing's going away.

PARTING SHOTS

"How cool is it that 'Cro Cop' gave me a high-five twice in the first round?" - Pat Barry. How cool would it have been if you had beaten him?!?!?! (MMA Fighting)

"I've got friends who spend more time playing golf. That leaves you 21 hours a day. You can either contribute to society or you can play Playstation." - Chael Sonnen, claiming that the idea of a "full time fighter" is a myth based on the knowledge that he only trains three hours a day.

"We’re all very good at doing what we like to do. BJ’s ground game and wrestling is unbelievable, but I feel I’m a far better striker than he is." - Ross Pearson. No witty commentary necessary. (Fighter's Only)

"Like you just said, you talk about Anderson Silva as the best striker in the division, I'm best the striker in the MMA period." - James Toney. Ditto. (Sports Radio Interviews)

"No, I really didn’t have an intention of going back to Strikeforce." - Jake Shields, who cost himself a ton of money during "negotiations" with Strikeforce and the UFC. (MMA Weekly)

"In the MMA world, I need to win this fight in fashion to make a statement that I’m back." - Tim Sylvia. Yep, Paul Buentello's that kind of opponent, Timmy. (MMA Mania)